LISAG1968

Hi everyone! I am new to this board and as lots of you seem to have a great deal of experience of what symtoms to expect during perimenopause/ menopause I would be really grateful for some advice.

I am 43 years old and until a couple of years ago my period came every 25-27 days and lasted around 5 days. They have never been really heavy and I have never had any real problems. For the last couple of years they seem to have changed in that they happen between 21 - 28 days and can be as short as 3 days long or as long as 8 days. Occasionally I have missed one altogether and once or twice they have been only a couple of weeks apart.

My last couple of periods have been quite light and the last one I had in mid-September was a week late (appeared around day 35 of my cycle) and was really light (it barely got out of the stage when you start light bleeding and you know it is going to start) and only lasted 3 days in total. A week later I went to the bathroom and there was blood on the toilet tissue. I had to wipe a couple of times and thought maybe another period had started as the last one was so light but I didn't bleed any more that day. However, since then I have had spotting ranging from brown discharge to light bleeding every day, almost like the type of bleeding I get a couple of days before I get a full blown period . It has been nearly a week of this and I am not sure what to make of it. I do feel like my period is going to start (slight cramping, fuzzy head, clumsiness, emotional all the usual things I get before my period!) but only the light spotting almost every time I got to the bathroom.

My mum says she start symptoms like this at my age but, as this has never happened to me before, I can't help being a little concerned. I have made an appt to see the Dr but that isn't for another two weeks. In the meantime, I would really appreciate knowing whether anyone else has suffered with these symptoms and has been told it is down to hormones/perimenopause.

Many thanks.